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Richard Branson's First House Was A Houseboat

1,894 views · Published 27 June 2018 · 0:57 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: CNBC Make It · 2018 · News & Politics

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Before Richard Branson amassed his fortune and bought his own island, he was a 16-year-old high-school dropout who lived on the canals of London’s Little Venice. “I couldn't afford a home,” he tells CNBC Make It, but “I could afford a houseboat. So when I moved to London, I bought a houseboat on the canal.” It cost him £2,000.

He named the the boat “the Duende,” which means "the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm,” and he moved in around the time he started Virgin, which began as a mail-order record retailer. “It was like living in a cottage in London. It was very cozy,” Branson recalls. Plus, “it was very good to attract the women, as a young teenage lad.”
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Richard Branson's First House Was A Houseboat | CNBC Make It.

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